Latest Review

Deep-Sky Planner Awards

Announcing the latest and best
Deep-Sky Planner yet!

Deep-Sky Planner 6 astronomy software for Windows provides the powerful, accurate tools you need to make your time at the telescope more efficient and enjoyable. Discover what you can observe, when and where to observe it, and what it looks like. Once you've observed an object, record the observation in the most feature-complete observing log anywhere. Your observations can be exchanged with other astronomy software that supports OpenAstronomyLog - the world's first open, non-proprietary international standard for recording observations.

Customers often report that Deep-Sky Planner has the best user interface among astronomy software. That's no accident: it's a commitment to making your observing as productive and enjoyable as possible. See why.

"I won't hesitate to say Deep-Sky Planner 6 was one of the most professional, best-working astronomy programs I'd used in a while..."- Rod Mollise, Sky & Telescope magazine July 2015

"I love this software and I think you’ve done an outstanding job creating the best logging program I’ve seen to date. It’s highly intuitive and DSP5 has allowed me to be much more productive at the eyepiece, and one of the most important features is the speed at which I can generate an observing list - maybe 1 minute. I love it."- Randy A, Colorado

"In the past I used XXXX [sic] but that is such a kludgy application that I just had to find something better; and I did -- DSP5. Coupled with TheSky6 it is a great combination. The amateur astronomy community owes you a debt for the enormous time investment you have clearly made."- Charlie M, Texas

Product Highlights

Data

Astronomy software relies on accurate data. Version 6 has the latest and best deep-sky and stellar data available. Data is taken from the latest professional, peer-reviewed catalogs and now contains 1.25 million objects. Version 6 includes the latest (2014) Revised NGC/IC catalog by Dr. Wolfgang Steinicke. Other catalogs have been added and many corrections and cross references have been made to the database. Stellar data has been added that permit high accuracy binary star ephemerides for well-studied visual systems, and predictions of variable star light extrema. Catalog data is treated differently than any other software in the industry. See why.

Accurate ephemerides may be calculated for Sun, moon, planets, comets, asteroids. You can do filtered and sorted searches for asteroids and comets.

Observing plans can be built containing any of over 1.25 million objects in the database, or any other that you define. There is a library of hundreds of pre-built plans online. Plans run in real-time or for any time and place that you select. Plans can be uploaded to Argo Navis, Sky Commander & SkySafari. Learn more.

Reporting

Data reporting is vital to astronomy software. Deep-Sky Planner includes several reports for planning and logging. Each can be printed, saved in HTML, plain text or delimited text (CSV) formats. Reports may be customized extensively. See how.

Logging

Astronomy software often treats logging as an insignificant addition, but not Deep-Sky Planner. The logging features are the most feature-complete available, and they are fully integrated with all planning features. The software learns which observing session and equipment you are using as you enter observations so that your workflow is optimized. The log is also fully searchable and reports are completely customizable. See how

The log supports recording extensive sky and weather conditions data, including direct reading support for Unihedron's Sky Quality Meter models LE, LU and LR. Still images, scanned sketches, video and audio can also be attached to observations.

Your observations are also more portable than ever: Deep-Sky Planner 6 allows you to exchange observations with other astronomy software using OpenAstronomyLog 2.x, an emerging international standard for observation exchange. You can also save your log reports as HTML, plain text, or delimited text (CSV).

Star Charting

Deep-Sky Planner interoperates intelligently with leading planetarium astronomy software giving you the very best star charting functions available without duplicating features and costs. Use with TheSkyX Pro, TheSky6, Starry Night, Redshift and Cartes du Ciel. See how.

Controlling Telescopes

Enjoy computer control of your telescope, and receive real-time feedback from your telescope or digital setting circles. See how.

Telescope control is a standard feature of Deep-Sky Planner and requires ASCOM 6 or earlier (free).

Ease of Use

Astronomy software doesn't have to be hard to use! Unlike most astronomy software, Deep-Sky Planner is designed to follow Microsoft's Windows Software Logo product guidelines. The software interacts with Windows in many standard ways that most observing software doesn't. It also works with Windows 8, 7 and Vista without User Account Control security problems. You can even install separate copies on one computer for multiple users. See how.

Check out the the video library and see how to plan and log observations.